Romney Had Best Not Listen to Bush’s ‘Neocon Lunatics’ (Izvestia, Russia)

Is Mitt Romney taking advice from too many neoconservative Bush advisers? For Russia’s Izvestia, influential Russian analyst Andranik Migranyan, who is thought to have Putin’s ear, writes that Romney’s comments about Russia and the world make it imperative – for the sakes of America and the world – that if he wins in November, he act as he did as Massachusetts governor: realistically. And in any case, America lacks the cash to follow the precepts of the neocons he surrounds himself with.

I would like to address how Republicans view America’s place in the international community. Unfortunately, up to now, the impression has been, as Talleyrand said of the Bourbons after the restoration of the monarchy, “they have forgotten nothing, and learned nothing.” The Republicans criticize Obama’s foreign policy on all fronts. The criticism is often forced and absolutely baseless. Particularly when it come to Obama’s attempts to normalize relations with other countries and U.S. allies, marred by the Bush Administration’s condescending policy of unilateral domination. In this context, it is not surprising that in this context, Romney uttered the words, clearly aimed at the average American, that if he wins, U.S. policy toward Russia will be less flexible and more rigid.

Those words, I suspect, evoked nothing but an ironic smirk from Putin. I doubt the Russian president cares whether U.S. policy toward Russia is more flexible or not. More important is that it is realistic – particularly for the United States. If Romney’s position is to be determined by neoconservative “lunatics” like John Bolton and Bob Kagan, if he wins, Romney’s foreign policy will be as doomed to failure as Obama’s most recent predecessors Clinton and George W. Bush. The former unsuccessfully tried to marginalize and weaken Russia and eliminate it as a major player in world politics. The latter tried, futilely, to establish unequivocal U.S. lordship over the world, without considering the opinions and interests of America’s partners and opponents – but also its friends and allies.

It is obvious to every realistically-minded analyst that the ambitions of neoconservative “lunatics” do not correspond with America’s available “ammunition.”